Alternate names: Žasliai [Lith], Zhosle [Yid], Zhosli [Rus], Żośle [Pol], Zhusli, Zhayslyay, Zhaslyay, Žaslių, Russian: Жосли. זאָסלע-Yiddish. 54°52' N, 24°36' E , 28 miles E of Kaunas (Kovno), 21 miles NW of Trakai (Troki), 10 km from Kaišiadorys (Kushidar) and halfway between Kaunas and Vilnius. in the Trakai district. 1900 Jewish population: 1,325 and about 1,000 in 1941. [March 2009]
CEMETERY
:Most of the cemetery is destroyed but about 400 stones remain, all photographed by Aleksandrs Feigmanis, Kahovkas 2-12 LV-1021, Riga, [November 2000]
Update: photos and burial lists are to be found here. [Mar 2012]
Cemetery information. [September 2010]
The Lithuanian Jewish Community cleaned up the Jewish cemetery. Chairperson Faina Kukliansky, Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon, Kaišiadorys mayor V. Tomkus and Žasliai alderman Mindaugas Nasevičius all took part in the clean-up effort. photos. [Aug 2015]
MASS GRAVE:
Part of the Jewish population escaping to Russia with departing Soviet forces encountered German forces and were forced to return to Zasliai. Lithuanian collaborator activists seized control and rounded up Jews and communist non-Jews, but the non-Jews were immediately released. The Jews were transported to Kaišiadorys (Kushidar) and never returned. The Jews were sent out to forced labor, cleaning the streets and other demeaning labor. Some would be arrested, given no food, and reduced to begging. Gentile neighbors sold them food at exorbitant prices or in exchange for valuables. Armed Lithuanians broke into their homes and robbed them at will. In the middle of the night on August 17, the collaborators transported all men and some of the women to Kaišiadorys and held them there for 10 days. On August 26, 1,911 men, women, and children were murdered in a woods of Kaišiadorys and buried together with the Jews of Kaišiadorys and some from surrounding villages in deep ditches and pits. The rest of the Jews of Zasliai with other Jews of the area, 962 men, women, and children, were transported to Shilishek on September 29 and murdered on October 6 in the forest, 200 meters NE of the village . Only three women and two children escaped these aktions by hiding with with local farmers. They survived. [March 2009]
Forest of Strosiunai, Ziezmariai county (two massacre sites); 92-93; pic. # 89-90 and near Semeliskes, outskirts of the forest NE of the town; 176; pic. # 313-314 US Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad